how can I update a dictionary in Ansible - loops

Question

I am creating a simple dictionary in ansible which is this one:
"types_dict": {
"name1": "Ethernet",
"name2": "Ethernet",
"name3": "Software-Pseudo",
"name4": "Ethernet",
"name5": "Software-Pseudo",
"name6": "Ethernet" }
My goal is to loop the dictionary and replace some specific values, the ones "Software-Pseudo" with "Virtual". I have tried the following:
- set_fact:
types_dict: "{{ types_dict | combine(new_item, recursive=true) }}"
vars:
new_item: "{ '{{ item.key }}': { 'type': 'Virtual' } }"
with_dict: "{{ types_dict }}"
but the problem here is that this one updates all the values in my dictionary, which is something I do not want at all. I tried also the following by adding the "when" statement, but also it is not working:
- set_fact:
types_dict: "{{ types_dict | combine(new_item, recursive=true) }}"
vars:
new_item: "{ '{{ item.key }}': { 'type': 'Virtual' } }"
when: "{{ item.value }} == Software-Pseudo"
with_dict: "{{ types_dict }}"
I also tried when: "{{ item.value }} == 'Software-Pseudo'" and many other things like this.
Any ideas on how to fix this ?

Answer 1

The task does the job. Items can be added to the list types_new if needed
- set_fact:
types_dict: "{{ types_dict|combine({item.0.key: item.1.replace}) }}"
with_nested:
- "{{ types_dict|dict2items }}"
- "{{ types_new }}"
when: item.0.value is search(item.1.regex)
vars:
types_new:
- {regex: 'Software-Pseudo', replace: 'Virtual'}
- debug:
var: types_dict
gives
types_dict:
name1: Ethernet
name2: Ethernet
name3: Virtual
name4: Ethernet
name5: Virtual
name6: Ethernet
Q: "I have null values like "name2": null in my dictionary, could I handle this in any way so as to replace it with sth else (another value)."
A: Add a line to the types_new. For example
vars:
types_new:
- {regex: 'Software-Pseudo', replace: 'Virtual'}
- {regex: 'None', replace: 'another_value'}
See the task below how null, None, and 'None' are treated by the search test
- debug:
msg: "{{ item.key }} {{ item.value is search('None') }}"
loop: "{{ my_vars|dict2items }}"
vars:
my_vars:
var1: abc
var2:
var3: None
var4: 'None'
gives
msg: var1 False
msg: var2 True
msg: var3 True
msg: var4 True